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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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2 - New RV's 20180228 - IA-AL This trip is starting where the other one leaves off, Waterloo, IA. We need to be up and going by 7 AM to get the rental car returned within 24 hours. Even with scraping the ice off the windows we were still pulling out of the lot by 7:01. Not quite going to make it to the cheap gas in Clear Lake so we end up stopping in Floyd instead at a BP. $.02 discount off the posted but that is still eight cents less than Clear Lake. As of last night we were going to call at 8 AM to get trips to AL. This morning we decided not to. That is the nice thing about this job, if you are not already committed you can decide you don't want to work today. Stopped and mailed my paperwork in Garner. But on the two hour ride up to Forest City we changed our minds again. So once we got to Forest City, I got the phone number of the customer and called to make sure they could take the RV's on Saturday. They could so we took the runs. It is amazing how one little word or phrase that I use interchangeable can be so foreign to someone else. I walked in the office and said we wanted a 'run.' This office calls them 'trips,' the other company calls them 'runs.' They had no idea what I was talking about. When I said I wanted to call the customer I must have not used their language either. But we got it worked out. Looked like there were about seven drivers doing their orientation today. We need them. 218 still on the board tonight and RV's parked everywhere in town that are not on the board yet. Car started, we moved our luggage and headed to Burnsville. Rough driving a car with no cruise. Dropped the car and Avis and went a block and stopped at Honey Baked for sandwiches. Then to the gas station, library and bank. Got home and our driveway was plowed in again. Need to put two shovels in the car instead of just one :) I think we shoveled for about a half hour. Long enough to get a path to the house and a spot big enough for the car off the street. Interesting that I could see the line where the shade from the house was. In the sun, the snow had packed and crusted. In the shade it was still deeper but no crust. We were home less than two hours. Picked up the mail, clean clothes, took out other things we didn't need to carry and then were gone again. Got through the cities before rush hour. On the ride back to Forest City we got our email bill for the rental car. It is wrong, two days instead of one. First BB called the drop, then the Pickup, then central customer service ... finally was told that we should get a corrected bill ... in 3-5 days. Back in Forest City we are at the Super 8, ate at Shooterz. Great food, but we keep missing the pasta bar on Tuesdays. Thought I had done the math on this trip but now it looks like we will make $100 less than I had thought when we took it. On trips like this where we don't make as much we will use points for motels to up the income. And we just got our last bonus points so now we have enough points to stay two weeks plus for free. Got paid for the bus trip but had to questions for dispatch. I wasn't paid tolls, they don't. And no transportation this trip, they only pay transportation on hard to get out of points. As soon as I was done talking he wanted to know how soon I could be back :) This trip is just under 1,000 miles but because of close times we can't deliver until Saturday. I will check with about getting a run back, there is nothing on our boards, but I have two numbers to call. I don't have a very big window. I need to be back on Tuesday for my DOT test. 20180301 - IA-AL This is a Super 8 so not so much for breakfast. I have two cups of yogurt and juice. No eggs or meat. Thought we were going to get a nice early start, but when we got to the office they had not left our paperwork out. Guess we didn't make it clear enough that we would be in early. Asking for the code was not a hint either I guess. One other driver waiting also. Luckily one dispatcher came in a half hour early and got us our keys. But we couldn't get the rest of the paperwork until the office was open. Which at this point was no longer a problem. Easy to find as both RV's had key clickers. It took us our usual hour to do our inspection and get out of there. Not sure if they are going to deduct this from my pay, but I have a full tank of fuel and no notes about it. Nice bonus if it's free. Detour to Clear Lake, US 69 will be closed until October? Different route, same miles. First stop is the Pilot in Clear Lake for fuel. BB fills, I add a gallon. Next stop is Center Point, there is a Sinclear truckstop with both a McDonalds and a Subway. We went with Subway. Nice clean place. No issues with traffic today, next stop is the Flying J in Wayland MO. Then two plus hours down to Lake St Louis where we stop at a Wal-Mart for fuel. $2.57 for diesel. We had added $10 in Wayland to get us this far. Didn't realize at the time that may be all we need to get us to delivery. BB is over 16 mpg and I am just under 15. Same type of units but there may be enough difference in weight to make a difference in mpg. Running 65 today. It's rush hour in St Louis but we are going against it coming in to town. Finally hit some slow downs near downtown because of roadwork and the river bridge. Once we were heading out into IL traffic was light again. BB was able to stay pretty close until the bridge where two other roads merge into the right lane, but she caught up again in a couple of miles. O'Fallon, IL is as far as we get. Right at sunset. There is a Sleep Inn with an IHOP sharing the parking lot. Ate at IHOP, the help there mentioned they had just had a 'free pancake' benefit for someone a couple of days before. As I was leaving I asked jokingly if everyone tipped their 20% ... "No, I didn't even make enough to pay for my gas." :( I did call about buses coming out of AL on Saturday. As of now, no. But I should call again Saturday. IF they have any they would be going to Bloomington, IL. That would be a stretch to make it home from there in 24 hours. I had only offered if there were going to MN, IA or WI. There is also something coded as 4D. No idea what that is, I will have to call. 20180302 - IA-AL Should be a shorter day so we didn't get going until 7:30. 100 miles later we stopped in Marion, IL at a Pilot for a rest stop. Scales in IL only want trucks over 16,000 so we haven't had to stop here for any. Somewhere along I-57 there was a semi in the ditch. Looked to me like he was right at that tipping point but still upright. Tow trucks were there but didn't look like they were anchored on yet. South of Marion we get on to I-24. Ohio River is running high, as are most of the rivers this far south. Flood warnings in effect until sometime next week. One of the US highways between IL and KY was already closed due to high water. Next stop was in Oak Grove, KY at a Flying J/Denny's. From here I called our drop and the bus dispatcher. Before we left this morning I called the dispatcher that had a D4 in Alabama. D4's are decked sets and something he shouldn't have put on the board. Hmmm, makes me wonder what else isn't being put on the board? Three locations of buses don't put their stuff on the board, now at least one location of chasis doesn't. I will have to call next week and as corp. Also called the 2nd driveaway company, yes they have one in AL ... but it can't be picked up on the weekend. :( This is our food stop, in and out in 45 minutes. We also fueled here. I wasn't planning on fueling here, but BB wanted to so we did. She did the math on how much we should need, I should have done my own math. Her math was correct, but the mileage must still be going up because when we got to Huntsville we had twice as much fuel left as we had calculated. It was prior to rush hour but it still took a long while to get through Nashville. At one point BB got over into the right lane so I did the same as to not get ahead of her. At some point we did need to be in this lane, but because of merging traffic, 100's of cars passed us in the other lanes long before we need to be over. No major accidents, just lots of traffic. One more stop in Columbia, TN at a Loves for a rest break. Checked the board again one last time before 5 o'clock, nothing. Nothing that works, IA is over 200, the total board is over 475. In slow times the total board can be down under 100. Tonight is at a Best Western in Madison right across from the airport. Not sure why we are not across the street at the Quality, not sure if we saw it. We were looking at Huntsville and sometimes other cities do not show up. Walked down to Schlotzsky's. Other choices included a Asian Buffet, Logan's, KFC and WaffleHouse. Also there is food in the hotel, we looked at the menu, but walked down to Schlotzsky's. Set our selves up for a free ride to the airport to get the rental car in the AM. Nice bonus, it's always a question of what the weight limit and clearance is going in with something other than a car. Plan is to move both RV's up to the drop before they open at 10 AM. Hopefully we are on the road by noon and back to St Louis for the night. Might make it back home Sunday night if we push it. Hours wise we can do it, but we need to be in Forest City two hours before dark to get to the airport by dark. Because of the weekend we won't know the net pay on our trip until Monday. Won't make as much money this trip as we will only be doing this two day trip plus a four day trip a week from now. With the board holding at over 200 for a few days and RV's parked everywhere I doubt the board will get down to zero before the end of March. 20180303 - IA-AL We didn't get an early start this AM as we couldn't delivery until 10 AM. Lots of breakfast and it was good. Bacon was really good, but not very warm. The kind that just kind of melt in your mouth. Found out later that there should have been crescents. Bonus, we get a ride to the airport, less miles on the RV which at this point would not have been in issue, we had enough fuel for another 100+ miles. We head out at 8:30 thinking that would be plenty of time, it wasn't. We didn't deliver until after 10:30. First we took my RV to the Wal-Mart across the street from the RV dealer. Then we went back and got BB's RV. Once we were both at Wal-Mart we went across a cross street and fueled. First issue was that my fuel pumped very slowly, you would read the 1/100ths of a gallon at full speed. Then BB's pump wouldn't pump at all, finally getting about a 1/10th of a gallon before giving up. First there was a pan-handler looking for cash, she told him no. Then someone pulled in, walked over to me and started a long story about having a job, not on drugs, needing fuel money. He finally accepted my no and left without talking to any of the other 10 people at the pumps. As he left he said "... it must be easy for you." When I was done fueling I was planning on leaving to drop my RV, but with all the people around I decided to wait for BB. As soon as she pulled ahead, a group was asking her about the RV, once she told them it wasn't hers, she only drove them they moved on. Then the original panhandler was back looking for a smoke. Later when we were talking about this I realized the guy who stopped and talked to me might have thought I owned the RV and was saying it was easy for me, because I was rich. I had originally thought he meant it was easy because I had turned so many panhandlers down. I wasn't going to pull any money out, I had a fair amount as we needed to pay for our RV washes. To top things off, I dragged the bottom of the RV when I pulled out. Wal-Mart was a great place to park but we will find someplace else to fuel next time. BB had heard me bottom out and was able to pull out an an angel and not bottom out. Once at the RV dealer we had to wait about an hour before our units were inspected. I walked across the street and got our car and finally found a place out of the way to park. Very, very congested lot. As we were standing there we noticed that one lug nut was missing ... it the threads weren't dirty. We hadn't taken pictures, but our guess is that someone took it either at the motel last night or the gas station this AM. None of the other nuts were loose. Someone in the lot asked if we were being helped and we ended up talking to her for a little bit. Seems she lives on the property and will sign our paperwork on Sunday if needed. Also had a long story about visiting Forest City ... in the middle of no-where. We are cleared and ready to go. We head a state highway and stop at a Burger King in Ardmore right at the AL/TN line. Back on the freeway we don't have any of the slowdowns we had yesterday coming down. Hours later we finally stop at Kuttawa at a Hucks/Pilot to use the rest rooms. We also bought some ice cream, it wasn't all that good but it was a treat. :) No major events on the highway today. We now have looked at the weather and we will be getting snow on Monday in MN so we want to get home Sunday night. Getting to Hannibal would make a shorter day on Sunday, but that would mean getting into a motel after 8 PM. That usually means we won't get going early which will defeat the purpose. We decide to stop near St Louis instead. After hours, we finally decide to stop in Chesterfield at a Comfort Inn. If we had used reward points a nearby Sleep Inn would have been cheaper but we are saving our points for something, just not sure what. We had talked about stopping at Lion's Choice, a regional roast beef chain, but ended up at Jason's Deli instead. I didn't realize that chips came with the sandwich so I said no when they asked which kind I wanted. We had also gone to the wrong register for it being a to go order. They made it sound like a big deal to change it ??? They ended up giving us free cookies because we had to wait. I had looked at the load board before we left AL. Nothing new. Still 200 on the board, seven plus days in a row. Over two weeks of over 100 on the board just out of IA. 20180304 - IA-AL Had planned on leaving by 7 AM but breakfast didn't start until then so we were a little late in leaving. Stopped at the closest BP thinking that was the lowest prices. It was, for right here but 50 miles down the road it was $.20 cheaper. But it saved us one stop. First stop was two hours down the road in Wayland, MO. Second stop was lunch in Cedar Falls at a Culvers. Another two hours later we were at the Pilot in Clear Lake for more gas. Rare day today. Had a semi follow me for over an hour before we pulled off. He had pulled out once to pass me and then pulled back in behind me. Shortly after that a pickup pulling a trailer house pulled on as I went past. He caught up to me but never passed until we got near where the speed limit went up to 70. He passed me and then I passed him and he followed me for most of two hours. It is really rate that anyone follows me at the speed limit for more than a few minutes. We do see a number of RV's heading to the south east. I did a quick count when we went past the employee lot at Forest City and it looks like they have about 250 staged there. Plus the 200 in our lot. Most of the places they stash them are still full also. I had the car up to 44.8 when BB took over but driving at 70 mph got it back down below 44 mpg. We got to the airport about a half hour before dark so we could have used the extra half hour this AM. We didn't waste any time today. We are pacing each other pretty well coming home from Forest City. BB drives the rental car and I drive our car at 65 mph. Last time I was sitting in the cemetery looking at my phone when she called, delivered. This time I had taken a few steps into the snow when she called. So I likely will have to make a special trip to take pictures, not count on having time waiting when we return cars. Stopped at Tinucci's to pick up something for supper. They don't have an specials so it's either wait for them to cook it or order chicken or ribs. One order is good for two meals. We also stopped at Cub in case we get snowed in Monday. No snow since we were home last time. But we may have our work cut out for tomorrow. As of 8 PM the forecast is 5-9 inches. We actually made pretty good money for a short one way trip. Now for a week off.  |
